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My first build of 2021, and a nice simple one to get back into it. This Special Hobby Vampire is a nice little kit and fits together really well. It does need a lot of nose weight though! I made this one out of the box, including the decals for 601 Sqn.

I couldn’t get motivated for the Sea King yet, too much interior stuff needed, so I thought I’d try a simple (hopefully!) build. This little Vampire should fit the bill, an all-over silver finish and simple cockpit. It’ll sit nicely with my Meteors, Sabre and Javelin, (Hunter and Swift at some point) in this scale. Nice box art, I haven’t made a Special Hobby kit before but it looks nice, lots of detail for its size and five decal options.

Hi there, First I wish you all a happy new year! This build was started around mid december, just for me to see if I could still tackle kits in 1/72 scale. Here we go! This is a nice little kit first released in 2014, but this repop is from 2018. The sprues looks fine and parts are nicely detailed. Wonder if this can still be called short run... No surprise, I've started with the pit, but didn't waisted too much time, as in the end there will be nearly nothing left to be seen. I'd painted it black (!), did a quick drybrush, crushed the decal panel, and tried some sort of micropainting... and quickly closed the fuselage! Believe me, you've missed nothing! The only touchy part was the joint between the half fuselages, and I took care of it with a lenght of stretched sprues instead of putty, achieving a more cleaner look. At least I think!

Finished this a few weeks ago, but only just got round to taking some decent pictures - not helped by the appalling 'summer' weather we've had of late in the UK. I won the kit at a raffle so splashed some cash on Xtradecal X72-172 and a set of Pavla resin Martin Baker seats. My first foray into the world of resin. Presumably when Pavla say "designed for the Airfix kit" what they really meant was "will go in the Airfix kit if you remove enough of the original cockpit". I had to really butcher the interior of the cockpit to get the seats to fix, but hopefully that's hard to see from the outside 🙂 WIP is here if anyone's interested: There are so many interesting schemes on the Xtradecal sheet I was spoiled for choice, but eventually settled for XE888/74 of RAF Leuchars Station Flight in 1959. As a Leuchars spotter (although a long time after 1959!) it seemed obvious. Here she is in all her glory wearing the fighter bars of 43 and 151 squadrons, both based at Leuchars at the time. Thanks for looking, and thanks for everyone who commented on the WIP offering advice and encouragement along the way. Bench is now clear for my Tornado GR.1 🙂 Al.

Every second post I see on social media at the moment seems to be modelling related, lockdown must be doing wonders for the modelling trade! I'm lucky enough to be able to work at home, so don't have endless days to fill. However, still feeling the other to get something else on the go after finishing my Phantom a few weeks back. I won an Airfix Vampire at a raffle held at once of the Sywell Aviation Museum's talks over the winter. Since it was free, thought I'd splash a bit of cash on it. Got myself the Xtradecal Vampire part 1 sheet and a set of Pavla resin bang seats. First foray into resin extras, I think it'll certainly test my painting skills! Haven't actually started yet, hopefully putting this up will give me that little push... Obligatory box artwork shot (although there can't be many on here that haven't seen one of these!) The Pavla seats. Look pretty good to my (untrained) eye. Presume I have to shave off the big block of resin at the bottom.. And the decals. I had originally thought of going with the Shawbury ATC school markings as the nose at Sywell is in that scheme. However, I'm currently favouring the Leuchars Station Flight machine with the 43 and 151 sqn marks. It'll go nicely with my 43 sqn Phantom. Also means I don't have to get involved in painting that awful dayglo orange again! That's about it for now. Helping my son with an A-4 he got for Christmas in an attempt to inspire him and give him something to do other than stare at screens, so progress may well be slow. Cheers! Al

Thanks Largescale32 Time to open a dedicated thread, isn't it ? Infinity Models (new plastic injected kit brand from HpH) is to release 1/32nd de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.3/.5 kits. Sources: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235064691-infinity-models/ https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235064691-infinity-models/&do=findComment&comment=3602067 So , now we are waiting the pics! 😉 V.P.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, my next project is Classic Airframes' DH Vampire Trainers kit. I've got the Flightpath detail set for it, too. After lots of work with a razor saw and sanding sticks, it's ready to assemble. I've made a start on the cockpit. Still need to paint the Face Blind Ejection Handles with yellow stripes before fitting it to the fuselage. I also decided to open up the holes in the intakes where they pass through the fuselage, which means you can see through to the inside of the fuselage (slightly). To that end, I scratched up a representation of the engine intake. It's not meant to be accurate, just something that looks like the engine. I'll also replace the exhaust pipe with a piece of aluminium tubing before closing up.

Hello colleagues. Its me again. This time with the Vampire. A little history about the pilot: DH.100 Vampire Mk.I, TG/287, HF-L, Squadron Leader Frank J Howell DFC and Bar, No.54 Sqn RAF, based at Odiham, April 1948. In 1940, whilst with 609 (F) sqn, F/Lt Howell shot down several enemy’s aircraft, achieved the squadron’s 100th victory (a Ju 88 shared with P/O SJ Hill) and was awarded the DFC. In 1941 he formed and commanded 118 Sqn and also claimed its first victory, a He 111 on 8 July and was awarded a Bar to his DFC in November. In the winter of 1941-42, he commanded 243 Sqn at Kallang to defend Singapore and flying a Buffalo, he shot down a Ki-27/Type 97 fighter. Captured by the Japanese in February 1942 and released just after the Japanese surrender in August 1945. In January 1948, he took command of 54 Sqn at Odiham only to be killed on 9 May 1948 while making a cine film of the squadron’s Vampires, one of which struck him on the forehead with its wing tip.

A bat that bites? Gotta be a Vampire right? Having divested myself of my studies for the summer, got the garden under control (tomatoes, chillies, courgettes, green beens and lots of herbs on the way), and been on my holibobs, so what do I do with all of that spare time? Join a GB of course! I'm joining this GB with the Azur boxing of the Special Hobby Vampire, I'll be building FB.5 WA331 coded A-T as flown by the OC of 112 Sqn RAF, from 2TAF based at Fassberg in Germany during 1951. I'll be using Modeldecal sheet 14 to provide the markings as it's the only one that has the correct colour sharkmouth. Most profiles, the original Heller Vampire kit boxart and the restored Vampire VZ304 incorrectly show the mouth as having a red infill, it should be black! Modeldecal themselves got this wrong when they first released this sheet in the 1970's, fortunately they corrected this when they reissued the set in the early 1980's, this time with photographic evidence and the testimony of one of the individuals who painted the sharkmouth on the aircraft. Cold War Shield 2 has some photos of the subject aircraft along with some other jets from the Sqn, they too have the black infill on their sharkmouths! I shall be building the kit mostly SFTB but with the addition of the FB.9 type starboard air intake which I've stolen from my Special Hobby Mistral kit. WA331 was one of those FB.5's which received the modification introducing a cockpit cold air unit which was originally installed on the tropicalised FB.9's, this unit was housed in an extended fairing to the starboard air intake. I shall be using Stuart's ( @Courageous } build of the Special Hobby Vampire F.3 as it shows some of the quirks of the kit. Right now Flikr is being in the words of my son, a butt head, it won't let me view the photo to copy the link to show you the kit, decals and a couple of books, There are plenty of useful walkrounds on the web for the Vampire so I have enough gen to help me with the build. I'll post the photo once Flikr learns to play nicely! EDIT: Flikr is behaving now, here's the picture!

LEMkits is studying the idea of a 1/32nd de Havilland Vampire FB.Mk.5 resin kit. To be followed Source: https://www.facebook.com/andriy.lemkitscom/posts/2231758820417172 V.P.

DH Vampire FB.9 1:144 Mark I Models The De Havilland DH.100 Vampire was built to fulfil a wartime requirement for a small, lightweight jet fighter for the Royal Air Force. Although the prototype aircraft flew almost two years before the end of the War, the production aircraft arrived too late to see service in the conflict. Despite this, well over 3,000 examples were produced and the aircraft enjoyed a relatively long service life by the standards of the day. Powered by a single De Havilland Goblin turbojet, the diminutive Vampire was capable of 548 mph and had a service ceiling of over 40,000 ft. In common with many other fighters of the day, it was armed with four 20mm cannon. The FB.9 was a tropicalised variant of the FB.5 fighter bomber, of which 326 were built. Mark I Models have produced quite a range of 1:144 scale kits, including many British types from the WWII and Cold War eras. This kit is part of a range of Vampire kits released by the Czech manufacturer that - so far - includes the F.3 and FB.5/51/52. The kit is limited run in nature, but the plastic parts are nicely moulded, with crisp detail throughout. There is a small amount of flash present and the sprue attachment points are on the chunky side relative to the scale. As with other kits of single-engined aircraft in the range, you get two Vampires in the box. As you might expect, construction is fairly straightforward. The cockpit is pretty good, with a separately moulded seat for the pilot, an instrument panel and rear bulkhead as well as a tiny control column. Detail for the instrument panel is provided courtesy of a very small decal. Once the cockpit is complete, it can be sandwiched between the upper and lower halves of the fuselage along with the engine air intake vanes. The Vampire is a notorious tail sitter, so I'd be tempted to cram in as much nose weight as possible at this stage. Being such a small model, the tail booms are moulded as solid parts, as is the elevator. The undercarriage is surprisingly detailed for a model this size, and you even get a minescule pair of balance weights for the elevator. The canopy is pretty good, despite its tiny proportions. Mark I have included decals for four different aircraft: de Havilland Vampire FB Mk.9, WX207, 213 Sqn., Royal Air Force, Deversoir Air Base, Egypt, 1949-52. This aircraft is finished in Medium Sea Grey and Light Slate Grey over PRU Blue; de Havilland Vampire FB Mk.9, WR154, No.8 Flying Training School, RAF Swinderby, 1957; de Havilland Vampire FB Mk.9, WR110, 75/76 Sqn,. No. 78 Fighter Wing, Royal Australian Air Force, Ta Kall Air Base, Malta, 1952-54 (with an alternative scheme for 'Exercise Coronet; de Havilland Vampire FB Mk.9, R100, No.1 Sqn., Rhodesian Air Force, Thornhill Air Station, early 1960s. Conclusion Surprisingly tiny, even in this scale, Mark I's Vampire is nonetheless an appealing little kit. Somehow the tiny scale suits the diminutive proportions of the little jet. The standard of manufacture looks to be pretty good and it doesn't look as though it will be particularly challenging to build. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

The only combat use of RAF Vampire FB.5 and Meteor F.8 took place in 1951-55 during the Operation Firedog. Albeit the photos are known of the High Speed Silver No.60 Sq. Vampire FB.5s (WA237-WA276 range), the pictures of FB.9s (No.45 and No.60 Sq., WG, WL and WR serials) show them in camouflage - presumably DG/DSG over PRU. My question is whether are there any photos (or other documents) confirming existence of CAMOUFLAGED FB.5s over Malaya in 1950-56 period? Was this variant used only by No.60 Squadron? It is said that in April 1952 the ex-No.60 Sq. FB.5s were flown to Kai Tak to equip No.28 Sq. And these a/c (during their Hong Kong period) are sometimes shown as camouflaged. Were they repainted in HK or were they taken already camouflaged from Butterworth? The situation is even worse with Meteor F.8. It is said that only two aircraft were deployed with No.45 Squadron in 1955. No photos, no idea about the looks, even no serials are known to me. Does anybody know more details about these two specimen? Cheers Michael

Hello and long time no see is what the people say in this case I think. It sort of went like this. A 30 year modelling break, then 13 builds posted here, then a further 3 year break due to lifeTM stuff. But no fear, because some kind of luck was with me, as I recently suffered a mini-stroke which included, free of charge, temporary speech loss and paralysis. Even MORE luck was that I wasn't allowed to drive for a while so that killed off my self-employed photo work and it hasn't recovered yet. And then they found out I had a hole in my heart since birth which was the cause. Much fall out ensued! This MEANS that I had some time to make some models again! *Insert cowboy style yelling and much cheering* AND.. It would be seen as good use of my time for rest and rehabilation. *Insert more cheering* So, before I soon start back into the real world of work, I was trying to get a few kits done. This means they'll be a short period of spamming a few builds before disappearing again for a little while. I hate doing that so mucho apologies, but I'll do my best to have a good ole browse at everyone else's amazing work before life shifts again. Here it is, my first warm-up, and crikey, I was a bit rusty. It's the Xtrakit Vampire FB.5 (also MPM), with a pretty scheme pulled of the Xtradecal sheet, No. 112 Sqn, RAF Fassberg, Germany 1951. Out of the box, other than that scheme. I somehow managed to lose the counterweights from the rear control surfaces to the carpet monster, but I was just happy to be building and painting again so rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. Thanks for looking. VampireFB5_01 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr VampireFB5_02 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr VampireFB5_03 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr VampireFB5_04 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr VampireFB5_06 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr VampireFB5_08 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr VampireFB5_07 by Jonathan Macauley, on Flickr

Vampire Mk.I Underwing Slipper Tanks (for Special Hobby Kit) 1:72 CMK It's a while now since Special Hobby did us fan of Cold War RAF types a favour and produced a new range of De Havilland Vampires in our favourite scale. The Mk.I was the most recent version of the kit to hit the shelves. Now Special Hobby have followed up with a set of resin slipper tanks, realeased through their CMK imprint. The quality of casting is excellent and the parts are as well detailed as they could be given the subject. All you will need to do is remove them from their casting blocks and clean up the pouring stubs. Overall these are a good addition to an already nice kit. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

DH.100 Vampire Mk.3 1:72 Special Hobby The distinctive de Havilland DH.100 Vampire was designed to fulfil a wartime requirement for a small, lightweight jet fighter for the Royal Air Force. Although the prototype aircraft first flew in September 1943, the production aircraft arrived too late to see service in the Second World War. In spite of this, well over 3,000 were eventually produced and the aircraft enjoyed a relatively long service life by the standards of the day. Powered by a single De Havilland Goblin turbojet, the Vampire was capable of a maximum speed of 548 mph and had a service ceiling of over 40,000 ft. In common with many other RAF fighters of the day, armament was comprised of four 20mm cannon. 1,202 Mk 3 were produced for the RAF and 20 for Norway. The Kit the top opening box are two sprues of grey plastic and a clear one. There are no resin or photo etched parts in the box though Special Hobby do offer s a PE set through their CMK line. It should be noted that not all of the parts need to be used to build the variants catered for in this edition. The kit looks excellent on the sprue, with lots of crisp, moulded detail and surface structures made up of fine, recessed lines and fasteners (although some of the detail on the underside of the fuselage looks a little heavy). The overall impression is closer to a modern, high pressure injection moulded kit than the older MPM/Special Hobby kits in my collection. Construction starts with the well-detailed cockpit. This area is made up of the floor, rear bulkhead and head rest, the pilot's seat, the control column and the instrument panel. The instrument panel features recessed detail and a decal is provided for the instrument dials themselves, while the gun sight is moulded from clear plastic. The inside of the fuselage halves benefit from some separately moulded sidewall details. Taken together, the overall impression is of a well detailed and suitably busy cockpit. Other internal detail includes the front and rear faces of the De Havilland Ghost turbojet engine. Special Hobby have elected for a bit of a smoke and mirrors effect here, splitting the front face of the engine into two parts so each can be seen through the intake trunking (part of which is cleverly moulded to the lower half of the fuselage pod. There is no separate tail pipe for the jet exhaust, with the pipe and protruding lip being moulded as part of the upper and lower fuselage halves. The nose cone is moulded separately to the rest of the fuselage, and it follows a panel line which should reduce the need to clean up the joint when finished. It will also enable you to fit the nose weight after the main structure of the model has been completed. Once the two halves of the fuselage pod have been joined together, attention turns to the wings and the horizontal stabiliser. The wings are simply moulded in upper and lower halves, with control surfaces moulded in place. Surface details are very nicely represented, although the trailing edges are a little on the thick side (nothing that can't be sorted relatively easily though). The shallow main landing gear bays are moulded as part of the lower wing but are pretty well detailed. The engine air intakes are separately moulded, complete with vanes. Nice as they are, they look quite inaccurate as the openings are too small. The plastic looks too thin to correct the flaw, so hopefully one of the aftermarket manufacturers will have a go an producing some resin replacements. The tail booms look pretty good and, as with the wings and horizontal stabiliser, the control surfaces are moulded in place. There are a couple of nice balance weights for the underside of the horizontal stabiliser though. With the airframe together, attention turns to the undercarriage. The undercarriage itself is quite nicely moulded without being overly complex. A choice of hubs are provided for the main landing gear wheels, so you'll need to choose the right pair for the version you want to build. Ordnance is catered for by the inclusion of a pair of drop tanks.The canopy is nicely moulded and is split into two parts, so it can be finished in the open position if desired. Decals The sheet brings 5 options all in High Speed Silver finish though the instructions call this Aluminium dope & NMF? Options are; VT793 from No.601 (City Of London) Sqn, Royal Aux Air Force, Malta 1952 VV196 from No.32 Sqn RAF Middle East Air Force, Cyprus 1950 VV194 from No.604 (County Of Middlesex) Sqn, Royal Aux Air Force, Malta 1951 VT809 from No.73 Sqn RAF Middle East Air Force, Malta 1949 VG703 from RAF Vampre Trials Unit 1948/49 Tropial Trials & Demo tour Conclusion Despite one of two flaws, this looks like a really appealing kit. The level of detail is very good indeed, and provided there are no surprises in terms of fit and finish, it should build up into a nice model, My only real gripe is the undersized engine air intakes, but hopefully these can be sorted with aftermarket parts. Overall though, this is a nice kit which I am looking forward to building. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

The Vampire served with the RAF's 2TAF in Germany from 1948 until 1955. WA361 was based at Celle in Lower Saxony, Germany with number 16 squadron, which flew Vampires from December '48 until replacing them with Venoms in 1954. I used a few different decals for this one; firstly big thanks to @Wez for the Vampire Modeldecals set! I used the Heller kit roundels apart from those on the boom which had the red dot in a weird place, so these came from a Bulldog kit - they look virtually the same size. For the underwing serials I used Xtradecals 24", then spares from another Vampire and a Tornado for the tailboom serials. Finally, the L was from the Revell Vampire and the K from a Swift serial! I used filler for the extended starboard intake. Apart from that she was OOB. Colour is silver auto-spray.

On we go with the RAF Cold War jets; hot on the heals of the Sabre comes this tiny Vampire FB.5 from Heller. On opening the box I was pleasantly surprised by its neatness and simplicity - though I bet this is actually a harder kit to build well than it looks! Could be interesting getting the booms straight and finding enough space in that tiny nose for enough weight! Here is the obligatory opening shot. I'm undecided on the decals. I'd like to build the kit option OOB, but the decals look quite old, and I understand that the shark's mouth should actually be black inside with a red trim, does anyone know if that's correct? I've also read that this particular aircraft didn't even carry the mouth, or if so then just for a few days!? Again, any information would be welcome. In the meantime I'm going to consider some alternate markings in case I don't go with the kit ones.

This was built from the Amodel DH100 Vampire Mk 1 kit modified by fitting the large tail fins, removal of the guns and different decals. There was much anguish about the colour scheme. It has been nearly done to death in a couple of BM threads but the upshot is that nobody actually seems to know what the colour scheme was. Most people agree that the topside was Medium Sea Gray but opinions for the underside colour range from yellow, silver to duck egg. I decided to go for silver. Decals were a problem as there was again a lack of hard information. I settled for 50" Type B on the upper surfaces and 'small' Type C on the underside. The others came from the spares box and and I made the registration. Incidentally the the blue in the kit decals, which I did not use, seems to be somewhat on the light side. Lastly seen here with its younger brother the prototype Venom. Any comments or extra information welcome John

Vampire Mk.1 at Midland Aviation Museum Coventry. This is the only Mk.1 in the UK. Pics Mine;

DH Vampire FB.5/FB.51/FB.52A/MK.6 - Mark1 Models 1:144 scale Mark I Models 1:144 scale Concept designs for the first Vampire was started as early as 1941 but these proposals were not accepted by the Air Ministry until 1942. Detailed designs were then undertaken for the aircraft which was now named the D.H. 100 Spider Crab and given an Air Ministry Specification E.6/41 for three prototypes. The first test flights were not undertaken until 1943 and a production order for 120 Vampire Mk.1 aircraft was issued in May of 1944. The first Mk.1’s entered operational service in the R.A.F. in 1946. The Vampire, in various versions proved to be a popular aircraft and saw service with many countries, including Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden. The kit: There are two complete kits provided in the box, which has a box-art image of Vampire Mk.5 WA144 tigermouth of No.112 Squadron R.A.F. in Germany 1953. The reverse of the box has five profile full-colour views showing various versions of the Vampire with their markings. These views are supplemented in the instructions with colour plan views that show painting demarcations and decal placements etc. The kit itself consists of a single grey sprue, containing all the component parts for the aircraft body; plus a clear sprue which holds the single-piece canopy and two tiny pieces for the wing-tip navigation lights. There are two of these kits in the box. On closer viewing, it can be seen that the engraved panel lines are sharp and not too recessed; although these could soon get filled when the primer, paints and varnish have been applied. The fuselage body is really small (obviously for the scale) and I can envisage some problems in finding space for the recommended 5g of nose weight. Five of the component parts make up the cockpit console, consisting of the floor; backwall; seat; control column and instrument panel. There is even a decal sheet for this panel!Finer details include intake and exhaust blanks, wheels and struts for main and nose gear assemblies, plus a pair of external wing tanks. The clear sprue holds the single-piece canopy and two tiny pieces for the wing-tip navigation lights. The four pages of instructions are fairly basic but clearly laid out in picture format, and include colour details for painting. There are two pages depicting coloured 4-view plans of the various liveries that can be applied. Some unusually different liveries are shown here. The decal sheet has markings for Vampires of air forces of Britain, France, Italy and Switzerland. There are enough decals to make two of the four aircraft displayed on the box-art; plus there will invariably be some decals left over for the spares box. Conclusion These kits can be classed as short-run castings and, as such, don’t just throw themselves together; however, with a little application and patience I think they can become nice little treasures in any post-war aircraft collection. I personally like this kit and I am pleased that Mark1 Models has produced this jet in 1:144 scale and I shall be buying more of them. These models can be purchased from many main line model and hobby shops or on-line. Review sample courtesy of:

Right - here we go - finally got her finished - my entry for the De Havilland GB - Airfix 1/72 Vampire T.11 So here she is in all her 'Day Glo' glory - I hope you enjoy and as always your comments and feedback are always welcome.

For this build I will be offering the 1/72 Revell boxing of this lovely looking Vampire F MK3 kit. I will be building her as a Mexican offering from the Aztec decals sheet. I also have a small fret of etch for the kit although god knows why at this scale! Sprue and box shot: Decal sheet and etch:

Hi, all! In the process of building of model Supermarine Attacker 1/72 from AZ model http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic.php?t=69517&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 within group building "Wings of the British Empire-2" http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewforum_f_204.html there was a question about the tire Attacker. Was the hypothesis reinforced by a photo that the main tire Attaker and Vampire are identical is stated: Whether someone can confirm this hypothesis data on the sizes of tire Attacker and Vampire from technical documentation on these airplanes? Possibly someone has samplings of buses of these airplanes? What will it give to modellers? If the hypothesis is correct, then for Attacker it is possible to use aftermarket tires from Pavla for Vampire: B.R. Serge

Just finished my Airfix De Havilland Vampire T.11. All in all its been a surprising little kit, parts were a struggle to fit together and brush painting the silver is always a challenge. That said I am really pleased with the results. It's an out of the box build, with a couple of minor tweaks. I changed the position of the trainers head, added ejector seat handles using fuse wire, and added some detail to the cockpit. I chose the preservation society paint job as I've seen that aircraft in the flesh, and having visited the Vampire at Wellesbourne airport yesterday, opted for some light weathering. with a final coat of Quick Shine, the pocket rocket is ready for inspection.

Good Evening Yes it's another one but I did promise a Vampire when I signed up for this and I want to see what Humbrol Fluro Orange is like.Hopefully this won't disappoint Martin H